Fluorescent Bulbs

[bigtiller]

I have two "can" lights recessed in the kitchen ceiling above the island. The electrician put 65 watt bulbs in them when the house was built and we have replaced them with the same when they burn out. I would like to replace the bulbs with the new fluorescent bulbs but I am not sure what size to buy. I would like to have as much or more light than i have now but I don't know about the heat or wattage limits on the "can" its self. Any advise?

 

[dooleysm]

I have started replacing my 65 watt bulbs with the CF equivalent. If you go to walmart they will be easy to find. Just look for the 65 watt equivalent, maybe 15ish watts? So far mine work great. As normal with CFs, they take a short, but still noticable amount of time to kick on. Mine start out dimmer than the regular bulbs, but slowly become brighter. Within a few minutes they seem slightly brighter than the 65 watt bulb they replaced. No worries about heat, they produce less. Far fewer watts for the can to handle too.

 

[Bird]

Our kitchen has three 4' tubes in one fixture and then two fixtures mounted to the cabinets (one on either side of the sink) in which I've placed 14 watt CFs. They really light up your work at the sink when you need it. We have 3 light fixtures in the breezeway and I have CFs in them, too, but don't remember just what wattage, then we have a 5 watt CF light in front of the garage door and one just outside the back door of the shop.

 

[dmccarty]

The CFIs will generate less heat than the incandescents bults. A 65-75ish watt incandescent will only use 13-15ish watts so it will generated less heat. We have 85ish recessed light fixtures in the house and all of them have CFI bulbs. You can us "regular" CFI bulbs. We use R40 CFI bulbs for the majority of the cans. Some of the fixtures can be "aimed" and those take R30's. We could use the "regular" bulbs but the R30/40's look better but they are more expensive.

We have had better luck with the bulbs from HD. The latest ones we have been buying at Lowes are burning out quickly.

Later,
Dan

 

[KAB]

I have switch to the cfl lights. I have found the same that Dan had found that the Home Depot lights (nvision) seem to work the best. They have less delay and I have had not had any problems with them. I use the daylight style of light. They have a slight blueish tint to them when on, but are brighter than the soft white bulbs (I use 40w equivalent instead of 60). There is also a bright white bulb that seems to fall between the brightness of the softwhite and daylight bulbs. ( I no-longer look at the lumen rating as it appears to be less than accurate.)

It did take a while to get used to the blueish tint of the daylights but now hate the yellowish tint of the soft white bulbs.

Kurt

 

[dgl24087]

Are there any CF's that are dimmer compatible? I would love to replace the incandescents in a couple of torchiere lamps but haven't found dimmer compatible bulbs yet. I've tried Home Depot, Lowes, & Walmart with no luck.

 

[KAB]

Are there any CF's that are dimmer compatible? I would love to replace the incandescents in a couple of torchiere lamps but haven't found dimmer compatible bulbs yet. I've tried Home Depot, Lowes, & Walmart with no luck.

Do a google search on "dimmable cfl lights" without the quotes.


Kurt

 

[Highbeam]

I have replaced almsot all of my incandescents with CFLs. I like the light, energy savings, coolness, and low power startup. Notice I didn't say long life? That's because they do NOT have long life. I have replaced many many CFLs of different brands over the years with many having lifes in the 6 month arena. Don't do it for bulb life.

 

[Logan]

I was a home depot last week buying a few packs of the new CF lights and I am almost positive (getting old) that I saw some that were dimmer switch compatible. It seems they were $8 or $9 each. I am happy with the CF's, the first I have bought. They take a couple of minutes to come to full brightness and then are as bright or brighter than the old bulbs. They come on immediately and don't flicker when they start, like the tubes do in my shop lights.

 

[RonMar]

I have replaced almsot all of my incandescents with CFLs. I like the light, energy savings, coolness, and low power startup. Notice I didn't say long life? That's because they do NOT have long life. I have replaced many many CFLs of different brands over the years with many having lifes in the 6 month arena. Don't do it for bulb life.

Same here, I can count the number of incandescents I have on one hand. Using CFL's I can run every light in my house when on my tiny backup generator as it is virtually no load electrically As mentioned, a 60-70W CFL will only use about 15W of electrical power. They also generate very little heat so can go anywhere an incandescent can go. What might be a bigger issue than heat is fitting them into compact light/lamp fixtures as they are typically a little larger than incandescents.

I have never seen one that is dimmer compatible, but I have never looked as I didn't think it was possible based on the nature of the way the light is excited from the tube.

Mine seem to last a good long time, I might have replaced one this last year throughout the entire house.

They are slow starting when cold and in freezing temps(porch light) may take up to a minute to deliver full light. I just replaced the two 100 watt floods on the garage with 123W reflector CFL's(PAR38, 23W of electricity per bulb). Good/same overall light, at a fraction(1/10) of the power.